Has anyone found any good, reasonable performance mods for an E430?

Mine is actually much faster than I expected. I don’t usually have much trouble with many other cars. Not that I can always pull ahead of them but I really surprise most other drivers.

I just got an Escort G2 Timer. I know it’s not always completely accurate but most 0-60 times are similar to Mercedes reported times of 6.1.

My best to date are:

5.78 Seconds (47 deg. out and very dry road)
5.98 Seconds (54 Deg. out and dry pavement)
6.00 Seconds Similar
6.13 Against a Cobra mustang (he could not pass me and I could not pass him. but I know I started a little later than him and had a slight hesitation.

6.18 Seconds

Some have been 6.8 and 7 but that was with wheel spin and or a lot of hesitation at the start.

I found just flooring it gets the best result. Revving to 10000 or 20000 I just get wheel spin and high 6 to 7 second times.

It has given HP readings of 250 and up to 289 HP

I don’t want to go nuts with modifications since I plan on looking for an E55 next summer or late 2005.

Any help or suggestions and experience with a G timer is appreciated!!
Mine is set to the closest specs I could get (vehicle weight, Front sq. ft.. automatic trans)

Have you tried Renntech. At Renntechmercedes.com. They have the best prices for aftermarket mercedes tuning parts.

I looked a little. But since I may be done with it in a year or so, i dont want to spend $12,000.

i was thinking about a littel higher rear end gear and a cold air system. Just a for a littel more puch off the line. I kow I can geta $30,000-$40,000 kit to mae it move but if Im spending that $$ Im utting it down on an 04 or 05 E55 not my 01 E430 with 83,000 miles. If I keep this one, I may start to spend a littel more $$ but for now $3,000 - $6,000 is the most.

Your E430 already has a cold air intake. Try HPS or Kleeman for a supercharger kit.

What do you mean, 12,000?? Here look at all the performance parts they have for your car.
E430 ('98<)
Stock Horsepower: 275 @ 5750RPM Stock Torque: 290 lbs.-ft. @ 3,000-4,600RPM
BHP Lbs.-Ft. Total BHP Total Lbs.-ft.
Code Gain Gain @ RPM @ RPM Description Price
54 210 00 30 10 13 285 @ 5750 303 @3000-4600 ECU Performance Upgrade** 1,595 $
09 210 00 94 30 22 305 @ 5900 312 @ 3250-5000 Performance Package 1
ECU Performance Upgrade**
&. Carbon Fiber Air Box 3,795 $
01 210 00 08 45 30 320 @ 5900 320 @ 3250-5000 Performance Package 2
ECU Performance Upgrade**
w. Carbon Fiber Air Box
& Sport Muffler 4,495 $
01 210 00 40 125 145 400 @ 5500 435 @ 2400-5000 Performance Package 3
Low Boost Supercharger Kit
with Intercooler 15,900 $

Yea, I saw this, but for the money, the chip and carbon air box are expensive for the improvement in HP and speed. The muffler is just for sound really. Not worth it. And I would love to go with the SUpercharger with intercooler but, like I said for $15,000? I can put that down on an '04 E55 (that already gets to 60 in the four second range with a factory warrantee).
I could put SC and intercooler on mine, if tsomething goes wrong I have to spend even more to repair it.

I really just want to keep cost down mostly because of the wife facor.
She doesnt understand why I want to spend so much just to "go fast and kill myself." So any mods to my current car really need to be resonable. SO I figure maybe some sort of aftermarket "carbon air box" and higher rear gears and Ill be happy for a while.

Just had one of those new Subaru svx or something like that (you know with the silly wing on it) race me. I guess they are supposed to be 5 sec. 0-60? I figured he wanted to race, along with the corvette behind it. I did suprise him. I didnt pass him and he didnt pass me but the vette was left behind. 0-60 in 6.03.

There is no "cheap" get-up-and-go upgrade for a mercedes V8, not to my knowledge anyway.